


Cardinal

by rosemilagros



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 19:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5639626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosemilagros/pseuds/rosemilagros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cardinal

One cardinal sat resplendently red in the snow, next to the food truck. For a moment she didn’t know what it was, a blot of pure crimson in her peripheral vision, but when her eyes focused she recognized the feathers, the spike of its head, the little black face and orange beak. It wasn’t moving.

"Here ya go, ma’am."

She turned back and took the gyro from the vendor’s hand, neatly wrapped in tin foil, steaming in the Philadelphia cold. "Ah, thank you."

"No problem."

The food looked too hot to bite into but she peeled back the tin foil, too hungry to wait, and stepped aside for the next customer. The cardinal still lay in the snow, upright but motionless on the gray slush piled up against the sidewalk, and even as she moved closer it stayed where it was.

A familiar hunched shape approached her from the side, and she took a bite of food before turning to him. "Where’ve you been?" Toby asked. For someone whose natural habitat was to all appearances a gray, snow-blanketed city such as this one, he had been extraordinarily miserable since they arrived this morning; not angry, but quiet, shivering in his black coat, hands stuffed into his pockets.

"Street meat," she said, still chewing.

Toby glanced at the food truck and sighed out of his nose. "You need to clear something up with the seating arrangements."

"Again? We took care of this in Washington."

"Yeah, well."

"And we went over it on the plane. No one had a problem then." She paused. "Is it a local reporter? Don’t tell me it’s a local reporter."

"I don’t know. He’s got a mustache. Looks like Burt Reynolds." He watched as she took another bite of food. "Can you put down the gyro for a second and deal with this?"

"Five minutes, Toby. That’s all I ask. Five minutes to enjoy this disgusting, delicious glob of carbs."

He looked at his watch. "The President’s gonna be up there in ten."

"And you know we never disappoint when it comes to staying on schedule."

"I know it’s easy to forget in the confusion of what we do, so I’ll kindly toss out a little reminder that I outrank you."

"OK. Why don’t you deal with the reporter then?"

A white huff of breath left Toby’s mouth and C.J. turned away. The cardinal was still there. It was close enough for her to take two steps and pluck it from the snow, but she didn’t move. Neither did it. She watched as the couple that waited behind her at the food truck walked away. She could still feel Toby’s presence at her back.

"I haven’t slept in three days," he said, and she did not need to look at him to see his downcast eyes and shoulders.

She looked at the gyro in her hands, not yet half-eaten, and she no longer had an appetite. She was close enough to see the breaks in the cardinal’s feathers and the point of its head, the separation of its beak, all clear against the snow like a blank canvas. She couldn’t stand to taste the bits of meat stuck between her teeth. "I think that bird is dead."

Toby’s shoulder brushed against hers. "Is that an omen?"

"That’s only with crows, I think."

They stared at it together and C.J. felt older than she had in a long time. Toby’s exhaustion radiated from him like a disease. She didn’t want to tell him that she’d only been able to sleep for an hour last night, and two hours the night before, and the nights before that she hadn’t slept at all. She wondered if he could sense her exhaustion as well.

His voice was not telling: "Finish your food and let’s go."

She looked down at the gyro once more. The sight of meat and onions and pita bread smashed together between the tin foil and her hands around it made her sick. "I don’t have to. I’m not hungry anymore."

The sandwich dropped into the metal trash can with a clang, louder than expected, and C.J. watched as the cardinal took to the air at the disturbance. Toby saw it too, watched it fly away and settle on a tree in the park across the street, a tiny red speck against bare, gray-brown branches.

"Someone’s probably wondering where we are," she said, and she took his arm as they walked.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](http://toberziegly.tumblr.com/post/121094437727/one-cardinal-sat-resplendently-red-in-the-snow). Thought it might be long enough to post on its own here.


End file.
